Telecom Italia S.p.a.

Cselt-centro Studi E Laboratori Telecomunicazioni S.p.a.

Cselt- Centro Studi E Laboratori Telecommunicazioni Spa

Italtel Societa Italiana Telecommunicazioni S.p.a.

Vinicio Vercellone

Mario Ullio

Massimo Sassi

Alessandro Faure Ragani

Marco Papa Manzillo

Luigi Ciminiera

Matteo D'ambrosio

Giovanni Stea

Maura Turolla

Marco Gandini

Luciano Lenzini

Enzo Mingozzi

Andrea Allasia

Angelo Garofalo

Luigi Licciardi

Luca Fantolino

Giuseppe Giandonato

Marzio Alessi

Alessandro Michele Aiello

Alessandro Capello

Riccardo Melen

Enrico Scarrone

Giuseppe Larosa

Paolo Coppo

Gennaro Amelio

Claudio Merulla

Alessandro Corrado

Gianni Rossi

Antonella Daniele

Bruno Bostica

Antonio Cappellari

Gian P Balboni

A method of providing access of a mobile terminal to an IP network includes establishing a security association between the mobile terminal and a first security gateway of a first router in said plurality of routers. The mobile terminal is provided access to the IP network via the first router, and the data exchanged between the mobile terminal and the first router is encapsulated by using the security association. The security association is made available to at least one second router having a second security gateway. The mobile terminal is provided access to the IP network via said the second router, and data exchanged between the mobile terminal and the second router is encapsulated by using the same security association. Establishing the security association includes assigning a Security Parameter Index that identifies univocally the first security gateway and the security association. Making the security association available to the second router includes making available to the second router the Security Parameter Index. The second router may thus have access to the security association either by requesting it from the first router or by identifying it in a set of security associations sent from the first router to a set of routers candidate to become the second router as result of the mobility of the mobile terminal.

Method for network access, related network and computer program product therefor

A method for enabling sharing of content files among nodes of a P2P network is provided. The P2P network comprises sub-networks each including a respective plurality of nodes capable of storing content files. Each sub-network has an associated corresponding hash table for indexing the content files stored in the nodes of the sub-network. The hash table is distributed among at least some of the nodes of the sub-network. The method comprises, for each content file stored in at least one node of a sub-network, storing in the hash table associated with the sub-network a criticality index providing an indication of the degree of sharing of the content file among the nodes of the sub-network. The method causes a node to cache at least one content file for sharing with other nodes of the sub-network based on the criticality index of the at least one content file.

Caching of digital contents in P2P networks

A method for enabling sharing of content files among nodes of a P2P network is provided. The P2P network comprises sub-networks each including a respective plurality of nodes capable of storing content files. Each sub-network has an associated corresponding hash table for indexing content files stored in the nodes. The hash table is distributed among at least some of the nodes of the sub-network. For each content file stored in at least one node, the hash table comprises a corresponding node list of the sub-network nodes which store the content file. The method comprises associating each node of the sub-network listed in the node list corresponding to a content file with localization data indicating the localization of the node within the sub-network. The localization data defines a corresponding preferential list of the nodes storing the content file for downloading the content file by a requesting node.

Sharing of digital contents in P2P networks exploiting localization data

A method and system for performing admission control in a packet-based telecommunication network includes a backbone network coupled between at least two access networks. When a first user on a first access network wants to communicate with a second user located on a different access network, a request is made to a quality server whether network resources are available. The quality server separately monitors both access networks and the backbone network and determines whether network resources are available to satisfy the request. In one embodiment, a two-tier approach is used wherein a coordinator module interacts with an admission control subsystem including a plurality of subsystem modules. Each admission control subsystem module is responsible for monitoring a part of the network, such as, one access network or a backbone network. The coordinator module determines which subsystem modules are associated with the user request and interrogates such subsystem modules as to resource availability.

Admission control in a telecommunication network

A system for providing, to users of data communication services, access to a communication network providing these services includes an edge node as well as a packet network, such as an Ethernet connecting the users to the edge node. The packet network is equipped with operation and maintenance procedures for preserving edge connectivity over the packet network. The edge node is associated with a backup edge node, which also provides access to the communication network. Preferably, the backup edge node has the same address as the edge node such that, in the presence of failure of the edge node, seamless connection is established between the users and the backup edge node by applying the operation and maintenance procedures.

Method and system for providing user access to communication services, and related computer program product

A system for fault and performance recovery in a communication network includes a set of network apparatuses as well as a plurality of sites connected by means of connections having a given topology. The network also includes routers for implementing given routing policies and has associated therewith at least one database maintaining information regarding the network apparatuses. The system includes test modules for executing performance tests created automatically by exploiting the information available on the topology of the connections between the various sites and by accessing the database in question. The test modules are configured for analysing the results of the performance tests to detect possible fault and performance impairment conditions of the network. In the presence of a fault and performance impairment condition detected in the network, the routers modify the routing policy to compensate for the fault and performance impairment condition.

Method and system for fault and performance recovery in communication networks, related network and computer program product therefor

A method for reducing fault detection time in a network includes routers configured to exchange messages via at least one switch to check mutual reachability, each message including a list of routers reachable from the sending router. The method includes snooping, by the switch, a message from a router to extract the list of routers reachable from the router; and, when a network fault occurs that prevents the router from being reachable via the switch, sending, by the switch and to all the other routers connected to the switch, a network fault message including an empty list of routers, so that the receiving routers, not seeing their own identifier in the list, declare the adjacency with the sending router closed, and proceed to reroute traffic on a new route.

Method for reducing fault detection time in a telecommunication network

A system for the time-based accounting of access by users to services provided by a data network includes a primary access node to provide access by users by establishing via the primary access node a steady connectivity between the users and the network. A secondary access node is associated with the primary access node, such secondary access node being configured for acting as a backup node to maintain connectivity in the case of failure involving the primary access node. The primary access node is configured for issuing a request for credentials for any user requesting access to said data network and, as a result of receiving valid credentials from the user, starts time-based accounting for the user. An authentication node cooperative with the primary access node and the secondary access node stores the secondary access node information items concerning the time-based accounting started for the user. The time-based accounting is thus maintained in the case of failure involving the primary access node as connectivity is maintained by the secondary access node.

Method and system for accounting access by users to data networks, related computer program product

A system for scheduling utilization of a service resource by a plurality of flows of information packets, wherein the flows include rate-guaranteed synchronous flows and best-effort asynchronous flows, the asynchronous flows exploiting the service capacity of the resource left unexploited by the synchronous flows. A server visits the flows, in subsequent rounds, by visiting first the synchronous flows followed by the asynchronous flows. The server is configured for detecting any backlogged synchronous flow, and when the server visits any said backlogged synchronous flow, it allows the backlogged synchronous flow to utilize the resource for a given time, whereby the synchronous flows have a guaranteed transmission window on each round. When the server visits any asynchronous flow, the time elapsed since the last visit by the server to the same asynchronous flow is determined. If the visit to the asynchronous flow occurs later than expected based on a reference round time, the asynchronous flow being visited is restrained from utilizing the resource for the ongoing round, and if the visit occurs earlier than expected based on the reference round time the asynchronous flow being visited is allowed to utilize the resource for a respective given time.

Method and system for scheduling utilization of resources, related communication network and computer program product

For the benefit of a reference ISP having a number of users, connectivity evaluations on a data communication network are performed relative to one or more ISPs of interest. Upon selecting a plurality of autonomous systems capable of forming a traffic source and/or destination for the users of the reference provider, tables of the BGP type are provided containing information on the paths available on the network for routing the traffic with regard to the above-mentioned autonomous systems. From these tables the paths of BGP type are extracted for the respective provider or providers of interest, searching for the paths that contain the respective AS number for the provider and/or providers of interest. For each autonomous system the oriented subpaths are extracted between each said autonomous system and the provider or providers of interest, identifying for each subpath the respective number of hops.

Evaluating connectivity on data-communication networks

A flow of ATM cells to be cross-connected performs two consecutive passes through the connection network (PX) of a node. In the first pass the virtual channels of the input virtual paths (A, B, C) are distributed among intermediate virtual channel bundles (A' . . . C'') each with an overall peak bandwidth equal to that of the virtual path of origin of its contributing channels; between the first and the second pass, the virtual channels are cross-connected and the related cells are temporarily memorized, and at the same time the cell flow to be associated to an output virtual path is shaped; and in the second pass the virtual paths are cross-connected, Temporary memorization and shaping are accomplished in a device (SMS) connected between the outputs and the inputs of the connection network (PX) of the node.

ATM cross-connect node utilizing two passes through the connection

The switching element allows building up of ATM exchanges capable of processing cell flows at bit rates higher than 700 Mbit/s. It uses an architecture with output queues, implemented through a unique shared memory, suitably controlled in order to obtain spatial cell switching towards the outputs. ATM cells are converted into a highly parallel format by a structure named rotation memory, where through the cells are then transferred into the master memory. The rotation memory is used also for the inverse operations of format restoration towards the output. The element control circuit is entrusted with the generation of writing and reading addresses of the master memory, in order to carry out the switching proper.

High bit rate cell switching element in CMOS technology

Basic element for the connection network of a fast packet switching node

The switching element for self-routing multistage packet-switching interconnection networks comprises: an input unit, composed of as many sections (IMA, IMB) as the element inputs are, each section comprising a FIFO memory (FIFA, FIFB) for packet buffering; a switch (SW) associated with a control unit (SCU) which, for each packet to be forwarded, sets up the connection requested for that packet between one input and one or more outputs of the element (ECP), on the ground of a routing tag associated with each packet and comprising a first and a second portion relative to normal routing and to broadcasting in the different stages of the network (RC), and solves possible routing conflicts between packets simultaneously arriving at different inputs; and an output unit, composed of as many sections (RU0, RU1) as the element outputs are and performing the whole of the functions necessary for the correct packet forwarding towards a destination. The control unit (SCU) of the switch (SW) is arranged to handle broadcasting of a packet independently of all other elements (EDP) in the same stage, so as to allow broadcasting also to a number of destinations different from a power of 2 (for an element with two inputs and two outputs) and cooperates with the memory (FIF) storing the packet to be broadcast in such a way that broadcasting does not give rise to internal blocking in the network (RC). Said control unit (SCU) moreover solves routing conflicts so as to set an upper bound to packet permanence time within the network (FIG. 2).

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Turin, Italy

Vinicio Vercellone